1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a fluid simulation method and apparatus and more particularly, to a fluid simulation method which allows productions of high-quality visual effect using a fluid implicit particle (FLIP)-level set hybrid method and an apparatus that can implement the method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer graphic-relating technologies have been applied to provide realistic images in high-efficient and low-cost productions of image and video contents. For example, highly detailed water motions are made by using the fluid simulation in order to express a large object's coming into and out of the water majestically in the background of the sea.
The fluid simulation has been already recognized as a basic and essential technology in visual effect (VFX) industries and used by artists to express realistic and colorful motions of fluid. However, since the fluid simulation is very complex and includes a large number of variables, it requires repetitive works while controlling such variables. It also takes tremendous efforts and time for such repetitive works since high-quality fluid simulation is generally very slow. For such reasons, the researchers in the fluid simulation field have focused on developing technologies to improve the quality and performance of the fluid simulation.
The fluid implicit particle (FLIP) has been widely used in VFX industries because FLIP-based simulation shows high performance with good visual quality. However, in large-scale fluid simulations, the efficiency is low because it requires many particles to represent large volume of water. Generally, grids with high resolution are used and the simulation is performed after deploying FLIP particles in the grids in order to simulate high-quality large-scale fluid. When it is assumed that a simulation space is half full with water in 5123 resolution condition and 8 particles are deployed per point of the grid, about 130 million particles have to be used. Treating of about 130 million particles requires high-end equipment and a long processing time so that using the FLIP technology is limited.